Labor says an extra $7.4 billion budget spending over the next four years is needed to drive economic growth and deliver better child care and health services.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has maintained his coalition government is better placed to manage the budget and boost jobs, with unemployment dropping to 3.9 per cent - its lowest level in almost 48 years.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese told reporters in Brisbane despite the higher spending - taking the budget deficit for the 2022/23 financial year to $79.1 billion - Labor would still be fiscally responsible.
"It pales in significance compared with the extraordinary waste that we've seen from this government," he said.
"You'll start to see a return on areas like our clean energy policy really quickly."
The costings include plans to crack down on multinational companies not paying their fair share of tax, public sector efficiencies and fees for foreign investment screening.
Labor's promises will also be partly funded by winding back $750 million in taxpayer-funded grants it links to "waste and rorts" under the Morrison government, as well as $560 million in penalties for corporate anti-competitive behaviour.
Asked why Labor was spending more money, shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said the investment was in key policy areas and was "worth it".
"We feel that the budget would be weaker without investing in crucial economic policies like child care, cleaner and cheaper energy and training," he said.
"So we've made that judgment not lightly, but in the interest of the economy into the future because we want to make these decisions based on economics not politics."
The biggest spending commitment is $5 billion on child care, with fee-free TAFE and a Strengthening Medicare Fund costing $800 million and $750 million respectively.
Dr Chalmers said Labor's policies would be seeking to address workforce shortages through training and increased participation in addition to skilled migration.
The opposition's costings document does not set out the cost of an aged care sector pay rise but neither does that of the coalition.
Mr Morrison slammed the Labor plan to save $400 million by scrapping temporary protection visas.
He said the last time Labor did that in 2008, 800 boats arrivals followed, along with 50,000 asylum seekers, costing $17 billion.
"Labor have learned nothing. They can no more manage the borders than they can manage money, and you'll pay for it," the prime minister said.
Labor would not seek to bolster the public service efficiency dividend, as the coalition has promised in a bid to save an extra $1 billion off the budget bottom line.
Mr Morrison, a former Liberal treasurer, said repairs to the budget after the last Labor government took six years to complete.
"Are we going to have a Labor Party and a Labor leader that doesn't know their way around the economy and is a complete loose unit, or is it going to be a government who understands how the economy works," Mr Morrison told reporters in Launceston.
"That is the choice Australians are going to get to make."
He said the 3.9 per cent jobless rate was evidence the government's economic plan was working.
Mr Albanese and five of his senior shadow ministers are hitting 20 marginal Liberal-held seats in the final two days of the campaign, kicking off in Sydney and Brisbane on Thursday.
Mr Morrison is in Sydney and expected to travel to Western Australia on Friday.
Averaging of opinion polls gives Labor a 54.3-45.7 per cent two-party preferred lead over the coalition, according to the Poll Bludger website.
Seven million people have either voted already or applied for a postal vote ahead of Saturday's election.
Australian Associated Press
